Kinburn Fiddle Fest.
The Fall Fiddle Party at the Kinburn Community Centre Oct. 20 marked the culmination of a Valley Heritage Radio 98.7 fundraising auction earlier this year. The event featured, from left, Bruce Armitage, Dennis Harrington, Terri-Lynn Mahusky, Trish Gibson and Randy Foster; and back row Eldon Ostrom, Kyle Felhaver, Jim Hunter, Gerry Letang and Ken Conway.
Lucy Hass
Fiddle fans from Douglas and Beachburg to Arnprior and Ottawa enjoyed an evening of foot-tappin' fiddle music Oct. 20, thanks to the Kinburn Community Association Inc.
The association placed the highest bid when a group of local musicians put their services up for auction on Ottawa Valley Heritage Radio 98.7.
The auction was part of the community radio station’s annual fundraising telethon earlier this year.
Renfrew fiddler Dennis Harrington said the idea was borrowed from the musical duo Bahoo and The Brat who tried a similar project.
“I give every credit to Bahoo and The Brat,” said Harrington. “They had the idea.”
Bidding on the fiddlers’ time and talent started at $300 and just kept rising.
Harrington thought the auction might raise up to $500 but actually hit $2,000 when the Kinburn Community Association placed its bid for a four-hour fall fiddle party.
“There are no better people than the musicians in the Ottawa Valley,” Harrington said during a recent interview with Dai Bassett on Valley Heritage radio just days before the event.
“I never dreamed it would bring in $2,000,” he told Bassett.
Harrington has a regular show on the popular community radio station – Cross-Canada Fiddling every Sunday from 1 to 2 p.m.